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Applied Data Systems' Commitment to Quality

What's the Difference Between ISO 9001:1994 and ISO 9001:2000?
By Gene Ritz, ISO Consultant

The issuance of the 2000 revision of the ISO 9001 quality standard (ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9001-2000) represents the first major overhaul of the basic structure of the standard since it was originally released in 1987 and revised in 1994.

The changes incorporated in ISO 9001:2000 are considered by most to be a major improvement in creating a structure that is much more aligned with how companies define, document, manage and improve their quality management systems. Even though most of the requirements of the earlier version have been retained, the new standard's structure and content has received high marks from quality professionals. Customers also applaud the new revision as the requirements for ensuring product conformance and customer satisfaction has been strengthened. Some of those changes include:

Increased Customer Focus
Management is required to demonstrate its commitment to the development, implementation and improvement of a quality management system with the aim of meeting customer requirements and enhancing customer satisfaction. This includes the establishment of effective arrangements for communicating with customers and the measurement of customer satisfaction.

More Logical Requirements Structure
Requirements are organized around 5 major clauses that provide a more logical model to guide the development of a quality management system. The old 20 element structure clearly was based on a manufacturing model and resulted in awkward and sometimes inconsistent interpretation for application to service and software organizations.

Adoption of a Process Approach
The new standard promotes the adoption of a process approach by allowing organizations to identify the major processes that make up their quality management system. The old standard led many organizations to build their system around the 20 element requirements structure. A process approach allows organizations to build and document their quality systems around a model that reflects how they actually manage their businesses.

Commitment to Continual Improvement
Greater focus on the monitoring, measuring and analysis of process performance data as a basis for driving continual improvement of the quality system processes. This includes the establishment of measurable quality objectives as a primary vehicle for measuring the effectiveness of the overall system

Relaxed Documentation Requirements
The new standard only requires that 6 processes be documented. This compares with the 18 required under the old standard. Even though most organizations will continue to document their key processes, the relaxed requirements gives an organization more flexibility in deciding the content and level of detail of their process documentation.